Comet Pojmanski (2006 A1)

[cometcatcher]

Found this very condensed little comet for the first time this morning using a 6 inch f5 Newtonian.

Conditions were poor and only captured 69 frames in partial twilight while dodging clouds. What a nice surprise in Photoshop when adjusting the levels slider to see a tail come out of the darkness. It reminds me of processing prints in the darkroom and watching the picture appear!

Details are Mintron video camera, 69 frames set at 64x frame integration, stacked in Registax. Gain was stepped back 2 clicks from full. Telescope 6 inch F5 Newtonian. Taken around 5am EST through the dining room window.

Hopefully conditions will improve as this comet shows great promise.

[Starkler]

Cometcatcher lives up to his name :)

Did you open the window or shoot through the glass ?

[[1ponders]]

what a great shot Kevin :thumbsup:

[RB]

Nice one Kevin.
Thanks for sharing and the heads up on this comet.

Cheers

[Mick]

Nice work Kevin, did you get a visual with your scope or just the photo. It's very low in the sky at the moment.

[ving]

well thats the first one here... congrats :)
thanks for the pic

[Lester]

G'day Kevin,

Like your photo.

I was out out this morning at 5, tried looking with binoculars 7x50's, with no luck. Where is the comet in relation to Jupiter? I captured a fuzzy about 20 degrees south and 10 degrees above Jupiter with 200mm f6 8 seconds.

[davidpretorius]

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?p=90794#post90794

i have added it to a beginners target, look for venus at 5am, move right and up

[cometcatcher]

I opened the window for the photo. I never shoot through glass. Had to have mosquito coils going though.

Visually with a 30mm eyepiece at 25X it looked small and very condensed. Quite easy to see. Be interesting to see how it handles moonlight.

For me it was just above the trees at 4:30 EST (5:30 DST). It was visible well into twilight as I followed it for nearly an hour before the sky was too bright.

Lester, the comet is quite small. I think it would be passed off as a star in 7x50 binos.

Some have been following it long before I spotted it. http://www2.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=6754

[Lester]

Thanks chaps,

Yes Venus is what I should have said, not Jupiter. I'll be trying again in the morning.

[h0ughy]

wow, thats inspiring a real live target to get! Lets hope we get to see a really good tail at mag 5 or above.

Well done, send that one ito the mags!

[cometcatcher]

It's still visible even with a 100% moon, but nowhere near it's full glory of course.

Weather conditions have been horrible. I nearly didn't bother this morning. It only stayed clearish for about 100 seconds. Took a shot anyway just to show it in full moonlight and through clouds. This comet would be quite a looker at high elevation in dark skies. Maybe in another week or two when the moon is weaker.

Only 43 frames at 96x frame integration mid gain. 6 inch f5 Newtonian.

[fringe_dweller]

nice kevin, keep 'em coming! :)

[cometcatcher]

What a difference a few more frames without cloud makes. This is from this morning the 15th at about 4:55am EST. 230 2 second frames through the 6 inch f5. It's on the move! I had registax track on the comet leaving star trails from the motion of the comet.

This comet looks like it will have a nice tail when the moon doesn't interfere as much. I hope it will be clear then.

[davidpretorius]

great shot kevin, i did try for this a few morning ago, but had trouble finding. roughly what magnification do you need?, do it stand out in say the finder scope?

[gaa_ian]

Great shot Kevin !
To much cloud for me to see it this Morning & I was busy hunting for RS Ophiuchi (which i found).

[cometcatcher]

David, I use the 6 inch scope at 25X to find it. You could get away with less though. I haven't tried to sight it in the finder. Don't think it would show well in the finder with a 90% moon.

[fringe_dweller]

:thumbsup: Nice work Kevin, as per usual - more please :)

[Robert_T]

Hey Kevin ,that second one is great - big coma and fine tail, love it :)

[Mick]

Nice work Kevin. :)

[asimov]

Great work Kevin!

[cometcatcher]

Oh yeah, now we're cooking with gas. The clouds stayed away almost the whole time allowing me to get a longer exposure.

341 2.5 second frames. Same setup as above.

This comet speak with fork tail. Couldn't see any tail through the 6 inch scope at all. All I could see was a small fuzzy blob. It's hard to believe it's possible to pull out so much detail that isn't visible to the eye.

[iceman]

Wow, great image Kevin! Nicely done!

Where is the comet currently located for a visual look?

[gaa_ian]

Try this page Mike
http://www.yp-connect.net/~mmatti/
Gives good maps on how to find the comet

[h0ughy]

Your very optimistic Mike, we have two items to see and can't probably until sunday/monday next week:doh: .

Is it moving fast?

[cometcatcher]

At this stage the comet's motion is mostly in declination and it's moving about 2 degrees per day northwards. A small nudge of the telescope every night.

At the moment it's under Corona Australis, in another week it will be below Venus.

[h0ughy]

Thanks

[fringe_dweller]

hhmmm streamers or TDE? I would think streamers should all start at head? oh well - the old bifurcated tail trick eh
hehe like the gas reference too
is he any good or what! :)

[cometcatcher]

Your right, I didn't notice that. Must be a tail disconnection event.

[cometcatcher]

No twin tail today but shows a sign of streamers starting.

411 2.5 second frames.

Spotted the comet for the first time in 7x50 binoculars but only because I knew exactly where to look. Very small, almost stellar, no visual tail.

[cometcatcher]

I love it when I have free access to the sky without interference from clouds. This may be the best image I will get.

1091 2.5 second frames or about 45 minutes combined exposure through the 6 inch f5. Stacked and tracked in registax.

[davidpretorius]

these are fantastic!!!

[Astroman]

There are awesome Kevin, can you do colour ones too?

If not someone send him a colour filter wheel quick :D

[cometcatcher]

I've tried tri-colour with this camera but it doesn't work well with comets. Not having the proper filters doesn't help either, but tricolour and comets looks kinda funny due to the comets motion. You end up with rainbow coloured star trails. From what I've seen single shot colour seems to work best.

Digital SLR's take nice colour pics. When is someone else going to shoot this comet through a scope with a DSLR?

[Astroman]

I dont mind three coloured shots, quite colourful...

Or even toucam with long exposure mod should be able to do some good to this object.

[cometcatcher]

I wouldn't mind a modded toucam to play with. But I wouldn't be the one to mod it. Small fiddly things annoy me these days. I have no patience in my old age! Can you buy them already modified?

Fooling around with the contrast a bit.

[[1ponders]]

Fantastic Kevin. One of these shots would make a great addition to the cometry section of the local astro mags.

great job

[cometcatcher]

OK, sent the above pic to Australian Sky and Telescope.

Still can't see a tail visually no matter how hard I strain. But I have light pollution in that direction plus there's still some moonlight up there.

[cometcatcher]

Want to see how bad my camera really is? I'll attach a single 128x integration frame. This is what I see on the monitor when I'm taking an avi. Barely any tail and more hot pixels than stars.

You gotta love frame stacking. The more frames I can stack the more detail the final image shows.

[h0ughy]

Full Kudos to your efforts Kevin!

[cometcatcher]

The clouds didn't let me have all my own way this morning. Only managed 479 frames so the image is a bit noisy. Also changed the scope. Out with the 6 inch f5, in with a 5.5 inch f3.64 Schmidt Newtonian Celestron "Comet catcher". Now where have I head that name before? :whistle:

The comet is really starting to "turn on" now that it's nearly at perihelion (22nd). Saw a tail very faintly in 7x50 binos and through the 5.5 inch. Nothing like the photos though.

[Starkler]

Wow looks like three tails :cool:

[davidpretorius]

another great one!

[xstream]

Pure magic Kevin. :thumbsup:

[acropolite]

Excellent capture Kevin, I must get up in the wee small hours and look for this one myself. :thumbsup:

[fringe_dweller]

yes but also about to dive dramatically towards eastern horizon, as well as continueing north, very soon.
Great stuff Kevin, you seem to be the only imager thats following this one consistently in the southern hemisphere/world (and publishing them) - oh well isnt that the usual way, especially with low morning comets :whistle:
No dust tail!!? unless that little bit of extended coma pointing in the s/s/e direction is it, at a guess, it is in between orbit trail and anti solar direction.
I agree top stuff!:prey2:

[circumpolar]

Does any one know if the magnitude of this comet has varied compared to the original predictions?

12 Feb - 7.3
17 Feb - 6.9
22 Feb - 6.6

I viewed on 13 Feb, seemed quite dull, maybe mag 7.3?
But viewed on 17 & 18 Feb and seemed much brighter than 6.9.:confuse3:

[fringe_dweller]

A1 was/is brighter than the mags you quoted, latest ones I have seen indicate somewhere between 5.4 and 5.8, atm.
It has performed better than it was initially predicted too - ephemeris's/orbital elements are often not very accurate when dealing with magnitudes, they are just a guide/guesstimate - only the positions should be taken seriously.
Magnitude estimates during bright moonlit periods are slightly unreliable. One reason this is so, is because the outer coma often can become washed out, leading to slightly different readings than if it wasnt so.

[circumpolar]

Is it realistic to expect to see this comet as a naked-eye object at/after new moon considering the predicted Easterly movement and a Dawn Sky?

[fringe_dweller]

If it continues on this light curve/remains at this magnitude for this week and into next, I will stick my neck out and say a possible yes, but barely, and only from dark sky sites/view that has a great, very flat eastern horizon.
You would probably have to locate it first in scope/binocs first tho, to be sure of what your looking at.
most likely it will just be a dot the size of a star or slightly bigger, to the unaided eye, hardly spectacular.
But anything can happen with comets (just look at the day to day changes in (morphology) in Kevin's pics) , as is well documented, but most often than not, it is the nothing side of anything tho ;)
FWIW here's hoping that it becomes better than it is expected too :)

[Lester]

Thanks for the continual update on the comet Kevin.

[cometcatcher]

Thanks everyone. Eastern morning comets are my favourite since that's where my adhoc observatory is positioned - out the window. Western is very difficult for me unless I go for a walk down the backyard, then imaging becomes difficult since the camera has to be connected to a full size PC that can take a PCI capture card.

Difficulties aside Comet Pojmanski is an excellent photographic target but visually it's a bit disappointing. I remember T7 Linear as a beautiful comet with a long easy to see visual tail in small scopes but this one is just a fuzzball at best and amost star like at low power.

[cometcatcher]

This morning's pic with 461 frames through the 5.5" f3.6, cut short by cloud. Didn't think I'd get anything for a while the sky looked like soup.

[cometcatcher]

419 frames from this morning. That's about 17 minutes worth. Interesting to see the tail change every day. The star trail gaps are from cloud interruptions.

[h0ughy]

Its getting a little thicker and brighter by comparing previous posts. Excellent work BTW Kevin

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Houghy. If it stays clear I might try a 200mm lens tomorrow.

[Portmac]

They are some stunning pictures....

Would it be possible to image this comet using a Meade LPI?

[cometcatcher]

I don't have an LPI Portmac, however I have seen deep sky images taken with one over at cloudy night's forum. You will likely need many 15 second frames stacked like I do in Registax to acheive the result.

Do you have an LPI to try?

[Portmac]

Indeed I have a LPI, however my skill level with it is low...
What would be the best time in the morning to attempt to image it?
Even if the image fails I would still like to eyeball it if that is possible :)

[circumpolar]

Kevin, you're a real Trooper.

You seem to have continous clear morning skies. Maybe thats why no one else is imaging.

Keep up the good work...(Play):lol:

[cometcatcher]

@ Portmac, the comet rises just before twilight in the east, below Sagittarius. I think there's links earlier in this thread and in the observing section that has finder charts etc. Um.. thread here http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=6754

There was another thread in beginners but I can't seem to find it.

Thanks Circumpolar, the skies have been very cloudy actually and strangely parting where the comet is for 20 minutes or so. I'll eat my hat if I get a shot this morning though, it's been raining off and on all night.

I see there's a luna intruder in the morning sky now. Here's a pic taken through the same scope I use to shoot the comet with at prime focus (5.5 inch f3.64). Normally I wouldn't use this scope for the moon but this gives an idea of field of view for the comet pics.

[cometcatcher]

Anyone know of any good hat recipes?

Barely 10 minutes this morning and I think it rained through part of the frame. Moon shower?

I'm not real happy with the image quality but it's better than nothing. 200mm lens pic. Doesn't seem to matter which lens I use the tail goes right through the frame.

[fringe_dweller]

More comet magic from the bedroom window!! ;) well what can I say you have surpassed even yourself in this effort B2catcher. I am seriously impressed! Its made its apparition all the more enjoyable, appreciate that

T7 was a very nice comet, exotic even, remarkable colour!! and loved the classic anti-tail earlier on. telescopic views were very good on it too, better than most are :-))
i remember I got more length in the anti-tail in the 8" dob than we did photographically! I think? around 2º or a little more? from memory? from a dark site.

Kevin did you catch C/2000 WM1 after its outburst in early 2002?, now that was a very serious eastern/morning comet :scared2: the best ever telescopically for me, that and C/2001 A2 would be my pics morning comets in recent times.
PS what is the FOV of last pic?, cheers.

[cometcatcher]

Completely missed C/2000 WM1 and C/2001 A2. What a pity, they looked like nice ones. I went through a bad period of health from 1998-2002 and missed most of the comets of that time.

Not sure of the field of view through the 200mm lens, a couple of degrees? It easily fits in Orion's sword area.

[Lester]

My hat is off to you, Kevin for your dedication, continuously on following the Comet. Thank you.:prey2:

[cometcatcher]

Well I've got nothing else to do at 4:00am. :D

The weather is getting worse. I've processed it out but there's a lot of high level cloud in this frame.

109 frames - about 4 minutes worth with a 135mm f2.5 lens. And again I see the tail goes right through the frame.

I see the comet is taking a dive in elevation. Looks like I'll only have it for about another week.

[iceman]

How are you getting this many clear mornings? Another fine effort Kevin.

[h0ughy]

it looks like we will end up missing this Mike, the forecast forthe next few days isn't good. Another excellent shot Kevin

[cometcatcher]

I wouldn't exactly say it was clear Mike. This is the cloud this morning in the direction of the comet. I'm just trying to shoot through the gaps.

[cometcatcher]

The comet is still there but this cloud is so frustrating. I can't get long enough gaps between clouds to take a nice pic.

5 inch f3.64 scope again. It's below Venus this morning.

[cometcatcher]

This is the first time since Feb26 I've been able to get anything. Just looking out the window now it's completely overcast. Plenty of cloud through the shot as well but I got something.

Long thin tail in the 5.5 inch.

[fringe_dweller]

exactly how big is that bedroom window mate!? hehe
another superb shot :thumbsup: - must be getting low for ya now?

[cometcatcher]

Thanks. It is getting low but also rising in a spot where the treeline is lower. I'm guessing I'll have it for about another 4 days but by then it will rise with twilight.

Might be the last I see of it if the weather map is anything to go by.

[cometcatcher]

Thought I'd put this collage together from the best pics in this thread.

All frames taken with a 1/2" CCD GEM Mintron.

Line 1 frame 1 Feb 11 through a 6" f5, the first day I spotted it.

Line 1 frame 2 Feb 17 6 inch f5.

Line 1 frame 3 Feb 18 6 inch f5.

line 2 frame 1 Feb 19 5.5 inch f3.64 Celestron "cometcatcher".

Line 2 frame 2 Feb 20 5.5" SN.

Line 2 frame 3 Feb 21 5.5" SN.

Line 3 frame 1 Feb 22 200mm f3.5 lens.

Line 3 frame 2 Feb 26 5.5" SN.

Line 3 frame 3 March 6 5.5" SN.

[Mick]

Amazing images Kevin :)

[cometcatcher]

Thanks Mick.

I've been tryiing to correct the soft images from the 5.5 inch cometcatcher scope so last night I turned the corrector plate around and the images are 100% better. I must have put it in the wrong way when I cleaned it! Oh well a bit late now.

[fringe_dweller]

very interesting Kevin when you put it all together like that, looks like it confirms a conjecture by some comet guru's I read.
If you look at frames for feb 18, 19, 20, 21, it seems posssibly that there is a jet/streamer outgassing from a fissure rotating with or being influenced by the nucleus rotating/tumbling on it's axis over days - I could be way off?? -- just a possibilty maybe, anyway looks great :)

[cometcatcher]

I think I see what you mean, especially for Feb 20-21 where the comet appears to have twisted around.

[davidpretorius]

gotta proud of those kevin, a great collection!

well done

[robin]

These are great pics Kevin.If i could get rid of clouds & house/trees blocking my horizon Id love to have a go at it.

[cometcatcher]

Well I've enjoyed hunting this comet, at least as much as comets of the past couple of years.

While not terribly spectacular visually, photographically it's been a beauty with nice streamers in the tail.

Thanks for the ride Comet Pojmanski!